at a loss, to be

To be puzzled or unable to come to a decision. The En- glish clergyman Charles Colton (c. 1780–1832) wrote, “As completely at a loss as a Dutchman without his pipe, a Frenchman without his mistress, an Italian without his fiddle, or an Englishman without his umbrella” (Lacon, Part 2, no. 116). One may also be at a loss for something, most often at a loss for words, meaning that one is rendered speechless.